


My Omega's Heart

by Royce_Clayton



Series: My Omega [2]
Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: A/B/O dynamic, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Daddy Sano, Dangerous Birthing, Father Saitou, Happy Ending, Jackasses in Love, Light Angst, Living with disabilities, M/M, Mating is easy, Nightmares, Possible Miscarriage, Traumatic Pregnancy, relationships are hard, supressants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 19:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7814716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Royce_Clayton/pseuds/Royce_Clayton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A direct sequel to my other RK fic "My Omega."</p><p>It was never supposed to be this hard. You mated, you had children, you loved your life. Nothing ever goes as planned for Sanosuke, though, and Saitou finds himself driving his mate away with his own protective, worried ways.</p><p>The birth of a child is a happy occasion, the loss of your mate infinitely less so. Especially when you've just realized how much you love them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Well ain’tcha just glowing, rooster head!”

“Shut your mouth before I knock your broom head off!”

Chou snorted. “And the temperament to match. My mother always warned me about pregnant omegas.”

A strong hand reached across the desk and plucked Chou up by the front of his uniform, bringing the blond close to the burning eyes and snarling grimace of one very pregnant Sanosuke Sagara.

“And what can I help ya with?” Chou quirked an eyebrow, only mildly concerned. It wouldn’t be the first beating he’d taken at the fighter’s hands, not even the first in his present state. Being Saitou’s lieutenant and Sano’s friend had landed the sword collector in the unique position of guardian and go between. Which sucked ass in every possible way.

“Where is he?” Sano growled softly.

“You have to ask? In his office.” And then he remembered. “Ahhh. Trying to keep you at home still?”

The begrudging omega released his friend and let him slide back down into his seat. “He’s gone too far this time! It’s fucking ridiculous.”

“Please don’t do anything that will land me in hot water, huh?”

“Oh don’t worry,” despite which the look in the younger man’s brown eyes claimed the exact opposite. The smirk was no better. “My mate will be pleased; I’m sure, to see me.”

Sanosuke moved further into the building, bee lining for Saitou’s office, leaving Chou behind. He blew out a frustrated breath and stood, gathering up his coat. He made his way out to the front office and looked at the other officers who were staring at him fearfully. Luckily they’d followed their orders to just let Sanosuke pass through without question. Even still, the whirlwind of hormones had left quite an impact.

“Gonna be a long night boys,” and the chorus of groans and gripes rose up immediately in answer, but Chou was already out the door.

*~*~*~*

Saitou didn’t even look up when his door was kicked in and all 5 feet and 9 inches of pissed off mate came rushing through. He did reach out and catch a wrapped fist before it managed to land a Futae No Kiwami and destroy his desk. Only then did he turn amber eyes up to travel the length of his lover’s familiar body, now stretched in the center to accommodate their nearly-full grown pup, to meet his gaze.

“Ahou. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to tell you I’m fucking through with this shit, Saitou!” The teen jerked his fist back and glared angrily.

“I did tell you that I would protect you and our unborn.”

“I can’t stay locked up in the house all day long, do you know how crazy I’ve been going?! It’s fucking insane!” He pointed an accusing finger at the officer. “I’m not your prisoner!”

“You’re my mate.”

“But not your fucking property!”

Saitou sighed and leaned back, reaching for a cigarette in his desk drawer before he stopped, remembering. The smell made Sanosuke, in his heightened state of senses, sick. Damn. It had been an unconscious movement but one that the other caught. At first it irked the brunette, but seeing his Alpha toss the nearly full pack into the trashcan by his desk did a lot to ease his fury.

“I’ve never thought of you as my property. You’re not a _thing_ to _own_.” Saitou was good at calm. Calm without sounding condescending, like he was explaining himself to a child, or deadpan, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, were a bit trickier. “It’s my job to watch over you. But I still have a job to do here as well. What would you have me do, Ahou, let you walk around in a town that knows you to be a man willing to fight with just about anyone for anything?”

“I can win any fight put in front of me!”

“And one wrong hit, which you are certain to take because you take _every_ hit, and you’ll lose him.” Saitou looked pointedly to the bulging stomach that so worried him, the stomach that Sano’s hands immediately flew to protectively at the very idea. “I don’t want to lose our child.”

“We could make another.”

Saitou’s eyes narrowed and he stood, hearing the fear and posturing in Sano’s voice. He rounded his desk and approached his mate, who stood very still, hands still guarding their unborn. Saitou reached out and stepped in, pulling Sano into a tight embrace, nuzzling into his neck, his Alpha instincts driving him to soothe away the brackish taint of terror in his mate’s scent. Not that he needed the instincts to tell him to.

“Ahou, it would kill us both along with him,” the older man murmured, resting a hand over his mate’s and feeling the warmth of life resting there. “You know it yourself; you couldn’t bear to lose the baby. And I couldn’t bear to lose you.”

“Saitou…” Sano lowered his head, his body shaking a bit, from the worry or the open declaration of affection from his usually colder Alpha he wasn’t too sure. “I’m not trying to put myself in danger. I’m not trying to put him in danger, but I can’t stand to be cooped up. I’m not this delicate china thing you seem to think I am. I protect what’s important to me.”

“At what cost, Ahou?” Saitou asked. “You give too much of yourself. Having a pup is meaningless without you there beside me.”

“I meant what I said, Saitou. I’m through. Don’t do it again, cuz I won’t be there when you come home. Or ever again.” Sano looked into his mate’s eyes, seriousness etched across his face. 

Saitou stepped back and met his look with one of his own, features sharp and cold once more.

“Yeah,” Sano turned and headed out the door. “That’s what I thought.”

*~*~*~*

The policeman couldn’t even act surprised as he stepped into their house that night to find it empty. His inner Alpha was howling, the absence of their pregnant mate driving it crazy. Saitou was just as agitated on the inside, but of course presented a calm exterior for the lifeless home around him to see. He forced himself through the routine of changing out of his uniform and into a yukata, then going to lay out the futon only to find it rumpled and smelling of Sanosuke. And fear.

Fuck, he’d had another nightmare. 

That, at least, explained part of the above average anger.

Sanosuke had always been prone to them, no one who lived through the wars got out without a few traumas that haunted them in their sleep when they were most vulnerable. Despite his happy-go-lucky nature, his Ahou spent a lot of nights awake. Drinking had been his cure at one point, but of course the child had put an end to that particular prescription. It had only taken a night after the heat for Saitou to be roused by a flailing Sanosuke. After a very hunted and roundabout conversation he had admitted that the nightmares had always been there, mostly featuring seeing the man he’d so worshipped’s head mounted as a warning.

The trip to the fox woman had been when they changed. 

They had both known that Sano’s body was sick from the years of suppressant abuse. Most of the powders used to achieve the effect would kill anyone whose persuasion wasn’t Omega already. The prognosis was grim to begin with; the fighter’s body was likely too polluted to carry a child to full term. Saitou had walked away hating himself for the level of importance he’d seemingly placed on children to bring his omega-in-denial mate around. 

Sanosuke had walked away with a new nightmare scenario to haunt him.

They had been getting better though, as the pregnancy went on and the child grew. Saitou was still woken up to his mate shaking and panting, tears in his wide eyes at the images of their child being stillborn. He did his best to soothe what he could, and support what he couldn’t. The rest of the day after a nightmare was tinged in shades of grey and red, anger flaring up at any little thing. Saitou had expected as much from a pregnancy anyway, but it hurt him to see someone he genuinely cared about suffering from enemies that he couldn’t cut down for them.

It left both of them in an edgy state, Sanosuke rapidly switching between normal, angry, and morose. Saitou just became increasingly protective, to-he admitted-the point of excess. But it became clear from the moment they’d realized his seed had taken and Sano was pregnant that the teen’s mental health directly tied to the wellbeing of their child.

Saitou stepped out of his home into the warm night air of Tokyo and took a deep breath. Then he set off down the road, determined to bring his mate home.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanosuke leaned back on his hands, looking up at the stars twinkling overhead. Night had fallen so quickly. Saitou would be home by now, and find him missing. He had meant it when he said it, and Saitou knew he was a man of his word. Still the fighter found himself saddened by the idea of his mate coming home to an empty and cold house. Sure, Saitou could be a complete bastard, and stubborn as a mule, but he was a good man. His good man. His good Alpha.

Gods how things had changed for him. He still identified as an Alpha to the average person, he didn’t care how pregnant he was, he refused to take any of the abuse so many Omega were subjected to, and he found himself at the forefront of a movement far reaching beyond himself. Rights. Omegas had rights. They should be allowed anything the others were. He’d had these thoughts and beliefs from the day he met his Captain, a strong Alpha with the most gentle of dispositions. And the most revolutionary ideas about Omegas.

The child inside of him had swayed his thoughts more and more these days, though. A tiny life was growing inside of the body he’d tried so hard to destroy and make barren. The fear and worry for that little one drove him mad sometimes, he knew he was far more unreasonable than usual. He had never believed you could love something so much without ever even knowing them yet but he did. He loved their son, or daughter but his hunch told him it was boy. And lately his hunch had been telling him a bit more than just one…

“It is a beautiful night, that it is.”

Sano came up from the depths of his musings, looking to find Kenshin sitting beside him on edge of the Kamiya Dojo. The redhead only smiled softly, not commenting on his friend’s slow response to his presence, and turned to look up at the stars too.

“It is a different world we bring our children into,” the swordsman mused.

“More peaceful at least.” Sano agreed, then sighed. “Whether that’s good or not…”

“You worry that they won’t know how to fight?”

“I seriously doubt any child of mine, or yours and Missy’s for that matter, could live without knowing some school.” Sano made a face and put a hand on his stomach. “Our kids will be strong, Kenshin. We just have to make sure they know to use it for the right reasons.”

“Mmm.” Kenshin smiled and leaned back, tilting his head. “I foresee a new era of the Gatotsu.”

“Hmph.” The fighter rolled his eyes. “If he doesn’t come out shouting Aku. Soku. Zan. From the get-go I’ll be amazed.”

“Kaoru swears our child’s first word will be Oro” Kenshin laughed.

“Kenshin.” Sanosuke looked over at his longtime friend and then away. “If anything happens to me when this kid is born—”

“You have done well so far, Sano.” The swordsman looked at the other, seriousness radiating from him. “But I promise to do all I can to keep Saitou from drowning in his grief.”

“He’s an ass, but he’s going to be a good father. I don’t want to see him throw that away just because I fucked my body up too badly to do the one thing it was made for.”

“If anything happens it is not because you aren’t a good parent as well, that it isn’t.”

Sanosuke stood, grumbling a bit at the added weight that had taken a while to settle into an equilibrium he could work with. “I won’t lose when it comes to willpower. But we both know that will and want don’t stand up too well to poison and stupidity.”

“I would offer you a hand but I’ve learned from Kaoru that that ends in pain.”

“You’re damn right.”

Kenshin watched his friend slowly make his way inside, heading no doubt to the room always well-kept for him. So long as they lived there would always be a room kept for him. He always had a home to return to, Kaoru and Yahiko made sure of it even before Kenshin had to say a word. The ex-hitokiri looked back up at the sky and tilted his head, musing some for himself, before standing and walking to the front gate of the property. He pushed the door open without a sound, watching it swing to reveal a casually dressed but positively bristling Saitou on the other side, who no doubt had every intention of breaking in if he needed.

Kenshin was a gentle soul, but he was still an Alpha. The aura that Saitou was throwing off contradicted the usual calm he’d firmly tacked in place. It was Kenshin’s territory that the other Alpha was about to invade, a territory housing his mate and unborn child, but Saitou’s very pregnant and very _stubborn_ mate was in said territory as well. The two held each other’s gaze for a long moment, unspoken words passing faster than even their blades could between them, before Kenshin smiled.

“I suspected we would be seeing you tonight as well, that I did.”

“Battousai. I trust Ahou is here with you.”

“Naturally, we always welcome him here.”

“Yes.” And if Saitou bristled, carefully maintained façade shivering for an instance in agitation, it was only at the thought that his mate had sought to place himself under the care and protection of the one Alpha who had bested him and lived.

Sano didn’t see it for the jab that it was, because he didn’t think like an Omega to begin with, and Saitou knew that. Without the actual biology Sanosuke lacked the proper subliminal cues that passed between Alphas at any meeting, he could ape the psychology well enough but the chemistry was lacking. His own physiology would have made up for the gap, but his Ahou had bound it down. He’d been walking blind and numb through life without realizing the second world around them.

“He just went to sleep. He was rather thoughtful tonight.”

“It’s becoming normal these days.” Saitou felt himself settling slightly. Thoughtful wasn’t a _good_ thing for Sano to be, but it was better than the rage and hurt he’d been confronted with earlier. That he’d caused earlier. “I’ve come to take them home.”

“If he agrees to it, then certainly.”

Saitou’s eyes narrowed. “Battousai.”

“He has a right to choose. Taking that away from him brought him here in the first place, did it not?” Kenshin just smiled in that infuriatingly blithe way of his, his posture the only thing that betrayed his firm stance on the matter.

“I’m doing what is best.”

“So it’s not just your sword style that is old fashioned and single minded.”

“This is a conversation between my mate and I—“

The two stiffened, instantly alerted to the very distinct metallic tang they hadn’t tasted or smelled in years, but had filled their heads nonstop before.

Blood.

Pain.

Fear.

“ _Ahou!_ ”

Saitou was through the doorway the next second, social and biological propriety thrown by the wayside by both men as they rushed into the home, splitting halfway as Kenshin made his way to the room where Kaoru slept. Saitou followed his nose and his senses to find his mate’s room, not even pausing to breathe as he threw open the sliding door to find his own worst nightmare waiting for him on the other side.

Sanosuke lay on the floor in a huddled, shaking heap, gnashing his teeth as he fought back a pain so sharp and internal that it took even the fierce warrior by surprise. Saitou’s eyes flew over every minute detail, from the sweat beading on his lover’s face, the way his eyes flashed in and out of focus, to the way he clutched at his stomach as if holding on for dear life-a dear life in fact.

Once he had taken in the subtleties he had to acknowledge the growing puddle of blood forming under the fighter’s hips, and face the reality of its origin.

Saitou let loose an inhuman roar as he swept his mate up into his arms, heedless of the dead weight he presented, and moved with the speed born only of outright fear down the halls. A flash of red joined him a step or two in and Saitou’s body made sense of the words he was told, his head so full of buzzing static it couldn’t process. He could feel it coming, the peace, the quiet that he’d taken to living in during the war, but the warm liquid now overtaking his yukata, and the sharp taste of his Ahou’s blood in the air, were keeping him from attaining it. 

All he could see was his mate, lying in bed beside him, deathly pale as he recounted a dream he’d had. About losing the baby. About dying in labor doomed to produce only more death in its final spear of vile spite and malice.

“—tou! SAITOU!” The voice was harsh against his ears, dragging him up from the darkness to the present. The present where his mate was dying in his arms.

“You have to put him down or I can’t help him!”

When did the fox woman get here?

Where was here?

Everything was taking too long, appearing in surreal slow motion and strobing intervals.

“We’ll lose both at this rate!”

Both? Saitou felt himself release his death grip on the other man, the man he’d tied his soul to. Both was immaterial. There didn’t have to be a both.

“Save Sanosuke.” The words were like ash in his mouth, the hot knife of betrayal twisting in his gut, knowing that he was once again going against his Ahou’s wishes and over his head. “Please.”

*~*~*~*  
The night passed, calm and quiet to the outside world, while three lives lay bare and bleeding on the floor of a single simple dojo.

Morning found Saitou kneeling in a different, clean, quiet room beside his unresponsive mate. Sanosuke was still so pale, though Megumi assured it was a result of the blood loss and would pass with time and rest. If Sanosuke woke up, he would be fine. He was breathing, at least, normally. Still Saitou found himself at a complete loss, unable to properly remember what all the night had entailed. Tears, screaming, so much blood that he’d thought himself back in the bakumatsu, and voices.

New, wailing, high voices.

“Ahou…you have to come back to me.” Saitou’s grip on the bundles of swaddled life in his arms tightened unconsciously. “Ahou, there are _two…_ ”

*~*~*~*

The first thing he could properly feel…was nothing. Emptiness. Unnatural, the kind that caused a great ache to well up in his chest-his heart. Information flooded his mind, blinding and painful, as his body tried to report the goings on to a mind that had left the earth far behind it. The emptiness could only mean one thing. 

The second thing he could properly feel were the tears as they welled up and escaped from under his shut eyes.

“Sanosuke…” A voice, one that filled his mind with thoughts of inner peace and cigarettes, reached out to him. A warm, calloused, gentle hand touched his cheek, chasing away the rain that would not stop falling from his heart onto his face. “Ahou, come back to us.”

The keen of a newborn, his body surging at the instinctual recognition of his own blood, finally opened eyes too heavy for his mind to lift.

The world was blurry and uncertain but there, there were the sharp, serious features of his mate, his lover, his Saitou. His hair was disheveled, his yukata-his wearing of a yukata in a home that his brain kindly informed him was not their own-stained in dried blood, and he had not slept. Sano’s eyes caught at his arms, cradling two bundles of cloth that made his heart sink and his head spin.

Two.

He’d lost two.

Quick to write the cry off as a figment of a tortured mind punishing itself further until it could take no more, Sano opened his mouth to scream his rage and loss to the world—

And was beaten to the punch by a pair of lungs far too mighty for their tiny owner.

He startled, staring once again at the blankets now, though, as if they might be venomous. It was a trick, surely. But Saitou was moving, reaching out and moving them to—

He was holding them, the two of them, and they fell silent, the four of them in that room, as his addled, half dead mind caught up to what his body had been trying to tell him from the start.

“They’re…alive.”

“And very loud. Just like the man who carried them.”

Sano felt the warm wetness spilling over his cheeks again as he held them. “They’re beautiful.”

“You haven’t even seen them, Ahou.”

“I don’t have to. I don’t care what they look like, Saitou, they’re beautiful because they’re here, alive.”

“You’re here, alive, too, Sanosuke.”

“Shut up.” The fighter wiped his eyes with a fist, laughing weakly, feeling the pieces of himself that didn’t lie wriggling in his arms slot back into place. “Don’t get sappy on me now just because of them.”

“I’m afraid it will not last, you’d best enjoy it while it does,” Saitou gave that rare smile of his, moving closer to settle his arms around his family and tilt Sanosuke back to lean on him. “You died last night, Ahou. I watched you leave this world behind, and I couldn’t chase after you to drag you back kicking and screaming because they would have been left alone.”

“I’m glad you had some sense then at least.” Sano looked down, peeling away the blankets slowly to see. “I’m not important like these guys are.”

Saitou’s hand caught Sano’s, stilling it in its excavation and stealing it away in a tight grip. The brunette turned and met the eyes of the Wolf of Mibu, his mate’s eyes narrowed and serious like only life or death battle had sharpened them before.

“I told them to save you first, Ahou.”

“Saitou!” The anger managed to claw its way past the pain that had so far ridden his body like a two yen pony. “I told you if this happened to make sure they were okay! The kids—”

“—mean everything to me.” The other assured, tone still grave and firm. “But it is meaningless without you here beside me.”

The fell silent, for a moment, two, as the truth of the words settled between them, filling a gap they had both carefully avoided the full term of their mating.

“I love you, Sanosuke. I put you first because even if we could not have pups at all I was too selfish to want to live a life without you any further.”

“Yeah…Yeah I…fuck you know I’m bad with words damn it.” Sano ducked his head, aiming to hide the distinct shimmer of more tears falling as he turned and pressed his face into Saitou’s chest. “I love you too you asshole.”

Minutes, and months worth of unspoken emotion, passed in their embrace, before the tears ebbed and Sano was able to show his face again. His eyes were drawn down, magnetized by the lives he held now.

“Gods…there are two of them.” He laughed softly. “What the hell do we do with two?”

“Invest in a bigger yard, I think.” Saitou ignored the elbow he received in response. “Well, what about naming them then? Seems like a good first step.”

“We hadn’t even talked about names.” Sano realized. His voice dropped. “I didn’t want to…in case I couldn’t…”

“They’re here, Ahou. Alive, and beautiful.” Saitou reminded, squeezing his mate to shake away the phantoms.

“Yes. I uh…I did, sorta, kinda have one name in mind, if it was a boy like we thought…” He felt his cheeks heating a bit. “Ourou.”

“…Really, now.” Saitou smirked. “So the Wolf of Mibu will raise the King of Wolves, will he?”

“Shut up, that’s his name.” Sano managed to release one of the bundles into Saitou’s arms, though his body felt the immediate loss and ached for it. “Ourou.” He gave a firm nod of finality, then looked down at the lighter weight. “And this little guys is—”

“Sozo.”

Sano’s heart stopped, his eyes widening and flooding for what felt like the millionth time in the past hour. He hadn’t cried this much since the man had died. The name alone normally made his heart clench but now…now he smiled brilliantly through the tears down at his son.

“Sozo.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Sozo!”  
The brunette boy froze in place, antenna like bangs dancing with the breeze over his face, head lowered. He bit his lip, and waited.

“Either play nice or come sit over here with us boring adults.” Sano warned.

The boy turned and smiled wide at his dad, lightly golden eyes shining, then resumed his run.

Sanosuke dropped back down to his cushion around the table they’d set up outside and sighed.

“They’re still trying to kill me, even now!”

Kenshin and Kaoru laughed, watching their own little boy chasing after Sozo while shouting. It was nice to see the boys getting along, even if Sozo tended to use his height to tease.

“They’re shooting up like bamboo, those boys of yours.” Kaoru mused.

“Tell me about it, keeping them in clothes that fit is a nightmare. And that’s not even counting the ones Sozo just tears through running around.” 

“Daddy?” An unsteady, mumbling voice came from inside the Dojo. Yahiko stepped out a moment later with his arm around the owner, a slender boy with dark fluffy hair and warm chocolate eyes. The boy smiled when he saw Sano and rushed over, launching himself off the high walkway knowing that his daddy would catch him, just as he always did. “Daddy!”

“Alright, alright,” Sano laughed as he pulled his son into a hug, then set him back so they could talk man to man. “How are your lessons going, eh? Is shrimpy-sensei any good?”

“Nice!” Ourou crowed.

“Well that’s something then.” Sano chuckled and ruffled his boy’s riotous mane. The little one snuggled against his chest. Always the affectionate one.

“I should hope so! He’s the future of the school, he’d better be good!” Kaoru said firmly, grinning at her disciple before leaning over. “But don’t give him too much praise, Ourou, or his head won’t fit in the room anymore!”

The boy didn’t respond, and Kenshin’s hand on her knee beneath the table made her realize. Her hands flew to her mouth.

“Oh, Sano, I didn’t—”

The fighter waved his hand and gently tapped his son’s shoulder twice. The boy unburied himself and looked up at his dad before turning and blinking at the others at the table, turning slightly to watch their faces.

“Once more, Missy.”

“Ah…don’t praise him too much, okay, Ourou?” She did her best to slow her speech, and move her mouth deliberately. “Or his head will get too big!” 

Ourou laughed and looked up at Yahiko over her shoulder, to receive a wink from his teacher. Then he turned back to his dad and hugged him again before getting up and going to find his brother.

“I’m sorry Sano, I forget.”

“The inside doesn’t match the outside. I know. It doesn’t slow him down any, and he doesn’t know the difference.” Sanosuke watched his youngest-well, they were twins, but somehow it had been decided unanimously that Ourou was the youngest-running to catch up, tripping a bit over a rock. As he started to fall he tucked his head and rolled right through it, popping back up with a giggle. “He just forgets to turn out sometimes, and leave his good ear open. We’re working on it.”

“He’s getting better these days,” Yahiko spoke up. “Still not too comfortable with the bokken though.”

“Just don’t let him drop it. He’s too damn scrappy, barehanded.” Even as he said it a wide and prideful smile bloomed over the young dad’s face. “Takes after me, of course.” He made a face. “But we want him to learn proper defense.”

“Leaves a bad taste in your mouth to this day, doesn’t it, Ahou?”

Sano snorted and lifted his head, smirking up at the man who could always sneak up behind him, even in broad daylight, even in that damned uniform.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just waiting for the day he knocks you on your smug ass.” He snickered. Saitou smirked and looked out over the yard to where the three children were playing.

“If he’s anything like you, Ahou, that day won’t come for ages.” Saitou smirked. “If he’s anything like his _father_ though…”

“Shut it.” Sanosuke stood, bowing his head to the others. “Didn’t realize it was getting that late already.”

“Always good to see you,” Kaoru smiled. “It’s so nice for Kenji to have friends his own age.”

Sano put his fingers to his lips and whistled, loud and shrill, to get both boys attention. All three came loping along, Sozo in the lead. Ourou and Kenji stopped well before the table but Sozo kept running, excitement getting the better of him. Saitou stepped forward and reached out, stopping his impetuous son with a hand to the chest. He let the boy’s momentum carry his legs out from under him, though a swift hand did soften the fall of his head as he hit the dirt. A far gentler fate than the table he would have hit otherwise.

Sozo just looked up at his father with unseeing gold and smiled.

“Father!”

“And would you be the one to buy the Himuras a new table after you’d run right through this one?” Saitou tapped the side of said table with his sheathed sword; his son following the sound and frowning.

“…It’s closer today.”

“All the more proof you didn’t do your proper scouting regimen this morning.” Saitou sighed. “A good swordsman knows his surroundings at all times, Sozo, or he finds himself very quickly cornered on the wrong end of his sword.”

“Yes, Father,” the boy replied, voice serious.

“Good. I expect a positive review when we come to pick you up in a few days. Remember what I’ve told you about angering the Battousai’s wife.” Saitou reached down, but Sozo was already getting back to his feet for himself. Saitou couldn’t help but smile as he turned back towards the others, his sons now both flanking his sides. 

“Uh, hello?” Sano raised an eyebrow. “And just when was I going to hear about this sleep over, huh?”

“Ahou, if I told you then what was the point of teaching the children how to keep a surprise?” Saitou smirked. “Or asking for a favor from the Battousai.”

“We’ll take great care of the boys, you two go and have fun!” Kenshin smiled.

“Saitou…”

Saitou took his mate by the hand. “Ahou, this is a heat year.”

“Shiiit…I forgot.” Sanosuke groaned.

They had agreed when Megumi cautioned that Sanosuke could not survive kicking the suppressants completely as they had tried before. There were just too many years built up inside of him. The medicines had stolen Sanosuke’s ability to regulate on a normal cycle. More than that, going without had almost taken his life, and succeeded in costing Sozo his sight and Ourou his hearing. None of them were willing to risk the chance of it happening again. The upside was that Sano got to live his own Alpha way, half of the time anyway. But he still came off of the poisons every other year to allow his body to process and cleanse like an Omega needed. Saitou was responsible for taking medicines to keep Sano from another risky pregnancy. The result was fantastic heat sex, without the risk of losing the mate he couldn’t live without. Not that their bedroom life ever really slowed down to begin with.

It was just so much better when he could hear his mate call out without the risk of scarring the pups.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to write this, my brain wouldn't let me do anything else until I got this all out on virtual paper. I'm happy with it, I gave myself closure, and hopefully you guys as well.


End file.
